If you want to drive your career development you'll need to take the wheel...

Got the job, like the job, good at the job...NICE!  Now sit tight, don't do anything goofy and wait for your annual review.  Oh yeah, and hope it's good. 

Years I'm hearing and seeing people using exactly this "go along to get along" formula only to be grossly disappointed (or worse) once their reviews are done.

Does your boss have performance expectations of you and if so, do you know what they are?  Do you have any performance expectations of yourself and if so, does your boss know what they are?  Are you above, behind or on track to satisfy all of the above expectations (aka, objectives, milestones, goals, commitments) and once achieved where will that leave you in the pack?  Do you meet with her/him on a regular basis to track performance to date and determine what may have changed up or down and the commensurate impact these up's and down's will have on your career trajectory? 

These are just some of the questions you should have answers for to determine what your contribution is and how it will stack up against your contemporaries.

"My boss has canceled the last few 1:1's because of scheduling conflicts but if there was a problem I'd have heard about it."  Unacceptable is my reply to that.  You may be doing just enough to not be a pain point, wind up on a performance improvement plan or get fired but significantly less than those getting the top raises and promotions.  NEWS FLASH:  Your boss doesn't have the same personal investment in your career as you do, nor should s/he! This isn't about promoting paranoia, this is about taking control of your professional development and creating mutual, agreed-upon goals so that you can manage toward achieving and exceeding those goals.

In these uncertain times it's good to have a job, but are you guilty of being so busy trying to keep your job that you're not doing your job?  If so don't expect a great review...vinny

See me at www.otbcoaching.com if you want to talk

Connect the Dots

"What do you really want to do?", I'll ask my coaching clients, and the response is almost as pre-programmed as the "just looking" most of us mutter to a retail sales person when asked, "how are you?"  The usual reply is something along the lines of, "Well I'm really good at x, y and z."   Not what I asked but while we're on the subject, who told you that you are really good at x, y and z?  Yourself, your boss, your brother, your spouse?  Think on it and I'll come back to this in a bit.

Try asking a child (that hasn't yet succumbed to parental/societal pressure) what they want to do, and they'll likely have several answers in the time it takes you to blink.  "Go swimming, ride bikes, eat chocolate, play with dolls/dinosaurs, etc" are just some of the replies I've heard from kids.  Interestingly enough, they seem to do all of them well.  I believe it's because they pour their time and energy into doing them well so that they can enjoy them more!  Our self esteem likely started out as high before we learned to argue for our limitations and then started doing what we thought we were supposed to do. 

Before someone told you this is "what you do well" or "this is what you should do", what is it you enjoyed doing?  Was it reading books or doing research? Do you groove on helping others solve complicated problems?  Is it  math, music, building, breaking or growing things that motivates you?  Doesn't matter but I suggest creating a list to see what they are as a means of seeing who you are.

Now that we have a list of things we like to do let's get back to what you're good at doing; the list you already have in the front of your brain.  Have you figured out how you learned you were good at them?  Don't sweat it if you don't know, but can you draw lines between what you like and what you do well?  In this sense, can you connect the dots in such a way that you create a visual of how your next career move might look?  If not, I encourage you to give a more honest look at your two lists to see what you might add or subtract to help complete your picture.

I'll leave you with this to consider.  Are you really good at the x, y and z things on your list or did you simply out-perform others who cared less about them than you do?   Imagine taking the things you're really good at and re-purposing them for doing things that you truly enjoy so that you enjoy the time you spend doing them more...vinny

What will the people you worked with REALLY say about you?

"...it's all good and besides, my reason for termination wasn't performance-related, they even said so."  Or maybe this, "...they can't say anything bad about me because that's defamation.  All they can legally do is confirm my title and dates of employment."

Well, in my experience very rarely are things "all good" and that absolutely applies to employment reference checks.  As for the second statement,  depending on the laws of the state in which you are/were employed, your previous employer may safely be able to say anything about you that is true as long as it meets the following criteria:

• Job related
• Based upon credible evidence, and
• Made without malice

So it's completely realistic, again depending on state law,  to expect a former employer to say that a former employee "had a history of being late which negatively impacted the project", or that "they were verbally abusive to co-workers as documented in their employee file", or anything else that meets the above criteria.

While many companies, especially those with structured HR departments, will refrain from giving detailed reference checks opting instead for Employment Verification, that may not prevent Steve in Marketing (at your prospective employer) from calling his friend Janice in Marketing (at your former employer) to see what she "thinks" about you and if she knows why you're available.  Social Media/Networking is so pervasive it's only realistic to assume that people will leverage their social networks for professional purposes too.   

Now try answering my original question, "What will the PEOPLE you worked with REALLY say about you?" Don't know or don't like but want to change, see me at www.otbcoaching.com and we can talk.

BTW and just so you know, people in HR usually don't even bring up the phrase "performance-related" unless on some level it was...vinny

Take a deep breath and count to whatever it takes...

Years ago I was trying to get a client of mine to interview an excellent candidate of mine for her open position, but she said she was fairly certain she already had the role filled with someone she was meeting the next day at 10am.

The following morning she called me at around 10:30 asking if my candidate was still available and I answered, "yes, but what happened to the candidate you met with at 10?"

She explained that she'd been running about 15 minutes late due to a traffic snarl on her way in and then went on to share the details of her commuting adventure.  Seems that in an attempt to be on time she'd inadvertently cut off another driver with an abrupt lane change.  Realizing her gaffe, she instantly waved her apology to the other motorist; appreciating that it wasn't enough yet not knowing what else she could possibly do.

The other driver sped up beside her making inappropriate hand gestures while honking, then pulled in front of her and intentionally slowed down before ultimately speeding away.

Shaken but mostly irritated by the way her morning was starting, and the fact that she was running late for an interview, she parked her car and ran into her office building for her appointment.

Both hiring manager and candidate were surprised that they'd already met on the road, but not that the interview was over...vinny

The best answer to the question may be Yours!

We used to joke that if you put two hiring authorities in a room, regardless of industry or discipline, you could get three opinions on almost any topic.  Doesn't matter what the question is, the important thing is that individuals will have an opinion as to what answers are right. 

Correct is good and what most interviewers expect, but breaking down a problem and detailing your approach to solving each individual part is even better.  In this vein do not skip past what you might consider to be the 101 parts of the question/answer, because it's conceivable that that is exactly what they expect you to do.  Forgetting or omitting fundamentals is not being clever and will say a lot about the value you place on what you've learned.  I've had candidates who understood and could articulate the fundamentals still give incorrect answers, but be rewarded with job offers anyway because they were able to combine what they knew with either an unconventional or bold or creative approach to solving the problem. 

Out in the world the other day, I'm riding an elevator around lunch-time and four tech types are heatedly discussing a computer science question that one of them had just posed to a job candidate during an interview.  While he was passionately explaining his optimal answer, the others were busy tearing his solution apart and offering what they described as more elegant alternatives and effective work-arounds. 

All of them worked for the same company (same badges), each had an opinion, no two were alike, yet all of them got hired...vinny